The Reign of Charles I
Charles I was the King of England, Scotland and Ireland from March 27, 1625 until the time of his death by execution in 1649.
Charles was the second of James VI, King of Scots (who later became James I King of England) and Anne of Denmark. His place of birth was officially recorded at Dunfermline Palace in Fife on November 19, 1600. He was a small child at birth and remained of diminutive stature for all his life, standing only 5 feet 4 inches when he was fully-grown.
This distinction has placed him in the Guinness Book of World records, as the country's shortest king! James was also quite sickly as a child and when his father was crowned King of England in March 1603 he failed to make the trip and was instead left home in Scotland for fear that the trip would put his already fragile health in jeopardy.
Charles' constant power struggle with the English Parliament was one of the main obstacles in his more than 20-year rule.
It may be said that the root cause of this long running conflict was Charles' insistence on absolute rule by the monarchy with no interference tolerated. This was of course in line with Charles, and the Stuart clan's general belief in the "Divine Right to Rule" policy which practically allowed them free reign to do as they pleased with regards to politics, appointments to key government positions, religious issues and taxation practices.
His taxation policies in particular incurred the condemnation of Parliament who strongly disapproved of Charles' imposition of harsh taxes upon the people without Parliament's prior approval.
Because of Charles absolutist policies, many of the members of Parliament as well as influential people in the country felt that there was a great danger that Charles would seek total control over the entire country. Like his father James before him, Charles was finding it increasingly difficult to control the Parliament.
Aside from his constant clashes with the Parliament, Charles reign over England was also besieged with difficulties within the Church. Many felt that he had strong-some would say too strong--pro-Catholic sentiments and his marriage to Henrietta Maria who was a Catholic did little to dispel that opinion of him. The English Parliament was largely ambivalent towards Charles marriage to a Catholic but they did disapprove of the potential implications of a marital alliance with Spain.
Much to the dismay of the Puritan factions within the Church of England, Charles appointed favoured advisers to key positions in the Church, which resulted in many criticisms against him. Among these appointees were Richard Montagu and William Laud who Charles later appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury.
William Laud in particular was a controversial religious figure at this time and his appointment to the Archbishop position was very unpopular with other religious leaders from the Church of England. Many of the Puritans from within the Church felt that Laud had taken too many liberties with their liturgy and that the changes he instituted made them too similar to Roman Catholicism.
Charles also encountered major difficulties in Scotland when he attempted to impose drastic religious reforms upon the Church there. This led to a war between Scotland that had the effect of weakening England and this may have been a key factor in Charles' eventual downfall.
It was these two factors-his power struggle with the Parliament and the religious controversies within the Church-that would come together to bring about the English Civil War. The two factions of course had somewhat differing causes; the Parliament wished to curtail Charles attempts to amass more power and the Puritans in the church opposed the religious reforms which threatened to "Catholicize" the Church of England.
In any case, these two united in a war against Charles that lasted from 1642 to 1645. The result was disastrous for Charles and the royalist forces. After the battle was over, Parliament naturally expected Charles to consent to the demands of Parliament for a fairer and more accountable constitutional monarchy. But Charles was unyielding and instead set about to incite a second Civil War that lasted from 1648 to 1649. For Parliament, this was reason enough for a charge of high treason and Charles was arrested, tried and subsequently executed.
After Charles' death, Parliament abolished the monarchy and in its place set about to establish a Commonwealth form of government. No King ruled over England during this entire time period until Charles son, Charles II assumed the throne in 1660.
Original Authors: Doods Pangburn
Edit Update Authors: M.A.Harris
Updated On: 25/07/2008
